It's the end of the century, the end of an era, mountains on the road to Odessa are over! Today I crossed Stara Planina (Balkan Mountains) to end up in the city of Pleven in the Danubian Plain, Northern Bulgaria - a long and hot 180 km ride from Sofia, including 1000 meter total ascent. From now on, no more dancing, I'll go down in the handlebars again, as the last 900 km to Odessa are all flat!
Tomorrow morning I leave Bulgaria behind, the impressions are more or less the same as two years ago on my road to Istanbul. The country has a lot of natural beauty to offer but to me it also exudes an air of some infinite sadness. Except for Sofia, for what I've seen of it, Bulgaria seems the land of few opportunities. Decay is pervasive, the dusty worn-out villages are far from one another. In the small towns it seems only the pimped up central shopping streets and town squares can keep up appearances, streets more far away from the center are just as ragged and colorless as their countryside counterparts.
No matter what, I had a real good time in Bulgaria. I'll be back. Tomorrow I go to well-known grounds, gonna leave early! It's 21st of June tommorrow, exactly two years after I rode on Bucharest's Union Square, I'll do it all over again! I am... excited, yes indeed!
Last but not least: today my outer tyre got damaged, no longer usable. Luckily I had taken a spare with me. The angels sung a second time!
Tomorrow morning I leave Bulgaria behind, the impressions are more or less the same as two years ago on my road to Istanbul. The country has a lot of natural beauty to offer but to me it also exudes an air of some infinite sadness. Except for Sofia, for what I've seen of it, Bulgaria seems the land of few opportunities. Decay is pervasive, the dusty worn-out villages are far from one another. In the small towns it seems only the pimped up central shopping streets and town squares can keep up appearances, streets more far away from the center are just as ragged and colorless as their countryside counterparts.
No matter what, I had a real good time in Bulgaria. I'll be back. Tomorrow I go to well-known grounds, gonna leave early! It's 21st of June tommorrow, exactly two years after I rode on Bucharest's Union Square, I'll do it all over again! I am... excited, yes indeed!
Last but not least: today my outer tyre got damaged, no longer usable. Luckily I had taken a spare with me. The angels sung a second time!